Online Courses for Students

Implementing online courses, hiring an assistant superintendent, and stressing critical thinking in the classroom. Those are some of the changes Gregory Janz said the Wayne School District can and should make.Janz is running for one of three seats on the board in this year’s board election.You‘ve got a lot of young people who constantly read online,Janz said.Literature courses could easily be tailored to an online setting. Powerpoint presentations could be used to make the course interactive. An in-class examination could be given to ensure that the students are the ones who did the coursework.

Janz is a principal with the Bergen County Technical Schools on assignment with the department of Bergen County Special Services. He is working with a residential drug rehabilitation center, a juvenile detention center in Paramus, and another for kids with behavioral disabilities. He served in the Marine Corps for 13 years.The district should have an assistant superintendent, Janz said.The superintendent is like the chief executive officer of a corporation, they overlook the entire operation. You can get someone who is a little younger, but who has experience. Someone who can assist the superintendent and go out into the various buildings and keep their pulse on the schools and the community.Students can also get a lot of exposure while studying in such universities and different course Engineering,Master of Architecture and International Economics.

Janz is in favor of public employees contributing 1 and a half percent of their salaries to their insurance plans. Teacher raises must also be curbed as a result of the new economic climate that exists now.I don’t think that is asking too much of someone,Janz said.Education has to look at our communities and how they are suffering financially,Janz said the board should examine the possibility of going from a nine-period long school day to an eight-period long one. The board considered making the change earlier this year, but chose not to.

Articulating the middle school curriculum to ensure a smooth transition for students to high school is paramount, Janz said.You accomplish that by having the teachers in the middle school meet with the high school teachers to find out what is necessary for a student to succeed in high school,Janz said.You then make sure the students learn begin that learning process in middle school.Janz said the district needs to revisit the decision to implement the Gates program for gifted and talented elementary school students. He said the Windows program challenged students.Certain courses, such as mathematics and physics, and English and history, Janz said, could be blended to broaden students’ understanding of a particular academic discipline.

Critical thinking and, more importantly, teaching children how to apply a specific thought process to a new circumstance, needs to be stressed more,Janz said.I believe more exams should be given along these lines. If you could tie math and physics together then a student could have a better understanding of why you use the equations you do to solve a particular problem and you’d have teachers in separate disciplines participating across the curriculum.